WorldCover 2017 Conference

IIASA scientists to attend the WorldCover 2017 Conference hosted by the European Space Agency.

The WorldCover 2017 Conference brings together land cover users, scientists, students, representatives from National, European and International Space Agencies, Value Adding Industries, Laboratories and Universities.

The main objectives of the conference are to head towards the development of a Sustainable Operational System for Land Cover Classifications and to follow up on the previous successful experiences: IGBP-DISCover, GLC-2000, GlobCover 2005, GlobCover 2009, GlobeLand30, and CCI Land Cover.

The WorldCover 2017 Conference also aims to provide scientists and users with the opportunity to present first-hand and up-to-date results from their on-going research and application development activities by using data from past and current satellites. The outcome of the conference will help to further shape the next generation of R&D activities in the frame of European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Observation Programs.

IIASA scientists Steffen Fritz, Linda See and Myroslava Lesiv will present Laco-Wiki, an online tool for land cover validation and H2020 funded LandSense project at the event.

LACO-Wiki is a new web-based solution for validating land cover and land use maps. Using a variety of reference layers including satellite and aerial imagery from Google and Bing, as well as OpenStreetMap. LACO-Wiki provides a framework for combining land cover validation methods and workflows in a single web interface including:

Guidance through the entire validation process in the form of “wizards”;

Methodologically sound sampling designs and rapid interpretation of samples in a user-friendly environment; and

The generation of state-of-the-art accuracy reports for communication to all types of users.

LandSense aims to build an innovative citizen observatory in the field of Land Use Land Cover, which collects data both actively (through citizens) and passively (from authoritative, open access, and other citizen-based initiatives) and integrates them into an open platform that provides valuable quality-assured in-situ data for SMEs, larger businesses, government agencies, NGOs and researchers.